BPC on S4 HANA - Consolidation options?

We're currently on BPC NW 10.1 (Standard) on HANA (BW 7.5). Currently on ECC but plan to move to S4/HANA. We do not use Planning in BPC - only Consolidation as of now. Given this scenario, I would like to understand options around Consolidation on the S4 platform. There is a lot of material out there with many different terms used to refer to the same thing at times. Hence, I'm looking for some clarity / confirmation on the below:

1) S4 Optimized for BPC - this is primarily a planning solution? Used to be known as IBPF and will essentially perform the planning functions as also integrate with traditional planning functions such as cost center planning etc.

2) S4 embedded BPC - this uses the BW component on the S4 HANA platform to access financial transaction data directly using virtual infoproviders and provides the ability to run consolidation real-time. Can this replace our existing BPC standard on BW which is a high volume performance intensive setup?

3) What other options are there if one does not wish to consolidate data real-time?

You're correct on your assumptions. Technically there is no difference between Embedded BPC and BPC Optmised for S/4HANA, with the second being some sort of "environment shell" with delivered content for planning. Even if not using this productively I suggest activating as it delivers a set of functionality such as virtual providers, virtual info objects, planning functions and integration with CO that can help to understand some of the concepts introduced to BPC embedded.

For consolidation, I really suggest looking at RTC. The "real-time" on the name sometimes leads to misconceptions but its architecture really brings up interesting scenarios.

Thanks for your answer. RTC sounds interesting but am curious to know if it can replace large volume BPC implementations that are currently on a separate BW/HANA system. From what I understood about embedded BW on S4, it is not meant as a substitute for enterprise data warehouse functionality that one gets on a standalone BW/HANA system. Hence my question on embedded BPC. Also, I understand that SAP now provides a second option if customers do not wish to consolidate real-time on S4? Not sure what exactly that is, but am assuming it would be similar to 'staging' the data and loading at specified intervals, similar to what happens in an ECC-BW system.

Embedded BPC is definitely not meant to be used for large volume of data, but in your question you said it was just consolidation... Anyway, the weighing should be something like: if the data in embedded part (BW and BPC) is larger than 20% of your underlying S/4 system, then you should consider moving to a stand alone BW system.

You can implement embedded consolidation "not real-time" in embedded BPC but in the end you will just add more work to it with the data loads and data replication.